Showing Posts For Twitchiopolis.2397:
I also feel the need to address the “balance and group composition” arguments mentioned above.
GW2 made a big deal out of the legitimacy of every class, and the ability to play however you wanted without being punished. The concept of needing “a balanced party” or combats where only specific builds work is counter-intuitive to that original idea.
I’ve been playing Guild Wars since Factions first came out. I built a Ritualist, and I fell in love with the class. I accomplished everything I could; cleared every map and mission, normal and Hard modes, with just bots and close friends. Even managed to put away every dungeon. However, there were always a few areas just out of my reach, not because of my skill level, but because of my chosen class.
Since it’s release and my acquisition of the appropriate level of skill, I always wanted to clear the Domain of Anguish. However, finding a group as a Ritualist was impossible. If you speced for healing, you were turned away because you weren’t a monk. If you were speced for damage, you were turned away for an elementalist. In the end, I never did clear the Domain of Anguish.
The worry is that now, as we punish our weaker players, we will have much of the same. People will be turned away from groups because they play engineers or thieves, because their warrior is speced to tank, or their elementalist is using a staff instead of daggers.
I like GW2 for what it is; an unigue MMO that breaks the conventions of traditional MMOs. I don’t want to see that changed.
The new WP system also seems to overly punish layers for their mistakes.
Pre-update, dying had the following consequences:
1) Damaged gear, monetary repair cost
2) Time wasted, moving from the nearest WP to the combat.
3) Downed Penalty, typically resolved by he time you returned to combat.
Now, dying
1) Damaged Gear, monetary repair cost
2)Time Wasted, moving from WP to site of last combat
3)Time Wasted, waiting for other players to revive you, die, leave combat, or finish combat
4a)Lost loot, if the other players finished combat without you
4b)Time Wasted, if the other players leave combat or die (as the boss has reset HP)
4c)Chance at all of the above AGAIN due to downed penalty, if they revived you mid combat
5)Downed penalty
Problem is, if the boss didn’t one-shot you down in the first place, after being revived you are at a much higher risk for it due to your downed penalty. The “res-rush” tactic had a side effect of the downed penalty disappearing by the time combat was reentered (due to distances).
Pre-update, I had a friend who hated doing dungeons, due to the cost of repairs she would rack up. However, she would still do them with me. Now, she won’t touch them.
As mentioned before, this update is not effecting the elite dungeon runners; if you never drop, you have no worries about revival. Who it is effecting are those already struggling; people not familiar with the dungeons, people who make one bad error.
Another thought on dungeons meaning for coordination;
GW2 lacks an in-game voice based communication system. For guilds, such communication can be done via vent, mumble, or teamspeak, so no problem there. However, for the PUG, no such option readily exists. What we then have is the need to communicate with our non-voice members via text, something that cannot be done real time during the boss fight. Yes, it can be explained prior, but the flash insight (“He’s charging! Dodge now!”) cannot be done. So you will have deaths.
Before, these deaths were no big deal. They were annoying, and they cost a new player a little bit of gold for repairs, but the players were able to rejoin the action and learn from their mistakes. Now, it’s a whole lot of sitting on the ground, or getting the boot for being a “newb.”
You may not have seen it as coordination, but PUGs had their own form of coordination. People new how to tackle dungeons, and how to learn from their mistakes.
Dear Devs,
Allow me to share my most recent experience in dungeon delving with you and how it was affected by the recent update; a PUG of CoE, Story Mode.
None of us had done the dungeon before, but we were all experienced, level 80 characters, and we had a walk through up. Things went as normal through most of the dungeon; some people dropped, we revived them while they were DBNO, ect ect.
Then we reached the end boss. Stage one took some getting used to, but we all cleared it without a problem. Then there was stage two; dodgy boss with an unblockable shot that can one shot you down.
This is where my problem with this update began. Even as a seasoned player, being new to the dungeon, I could not accurately read his forecast for the insta-kill shot, and got downed. A teammate picked me up, and I got shot again. Busy keeping themselves alive, no-one had a chance to revive me, and I died. A bit later on, someone DID manage to revive me from dead, when I came back with ALL MY DEATH PENALTY, dodged a shot or two aimed at a teammate, took one shot, and promptly died again due to death penalty. So much fun sarcasm.
Let’s look at the breakdown of that fight, just step 2 of 3 of just the end boss.
a)If he hits you, you are downed.
b)If someone tries to revive you, they are immobile and unable to dodge his shot. They are down.
c)If he hits you while you are downed, you are dead.
d) If you are dead, you cannot participate in the fight. You cannot return to the waypoint. You must wait for someone to revive you (see b above)
Now this is me as a seasoned player. When my less experienced, less skilled friend goes to do this, how will they feel?
You created the DBNO state so that players could always feel like they were helping out, even at the brink of defeat. By instating the no waypoint system, you are doing the exact opposite.